August Recess-Health Care FAQs

Congress broke camp today for the August recess without passing health care in either chamber. This gives us more time to examine the proposals, listen to constituents and build bi-partisan support for something everyone in Congress knows has to happen. We must reform health care to control costs for many reasons, but the most basic and practical is that if cost continue to climb as they have been we simply will not be able to pay for two of our cornerstone social programs — Medicare and Medicaid.

While I am home working in the District, during this break from the heated rhetoric of Washington, I will be spending a great deal of time listening to you on this critical issue. Next week I will be doing a tele-town hall with thousands of you to get feedback, and next Saturday health care will be the subject of our monthly Coffee with Cleaver.

I did want to address many of the calls and questions we are getting in our office about this subject and have put together this group of Frequently Asked Questions. It is far more important to get this right than to do it right now, and so I am looking forward to hearing from you as we continue to work on this legislation.

Health Care Frequently Asked Questions can be found here >>>

Funding for 54 new Police

It was my pleasure to announce this week that over $9 million in grants have been awarded to hire police in Missouri’s Fifth District. The grants come as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which allocated $1 billion to fund the hiring and rehiring of law enforcement officers all across the country. Nationwide, the announcement will fund 4,699 officers for three years. Kansas City was awarded $8.3 million to hire 50 officers. Independence received $543,393 to hire 3 officers and Sugar Creek received $158,847 to hire one additional officer. Police departments receiving the grants will then be required to retain the grant-funded positions for a fourth year.

While I was mayor of Kansas City, I helped write the original Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) hiring grants program with President Bill Clinton. After its passage, our nation experienced a significant drop in crime rates.

Almost 12 years ago, I remember standing with Mayor Rudy Giuliani and President Bill Clinton as he described the very first COPS program. The program encouraged mayors and police chiefs from around the nation to build a partnership with the federal government. I can tell you first-hand, the partnership really worked. This week’s announcement adds 50 more police to Kansas City’s streets at a time when they are desperately needed. To put that in perspective, in the first 10 years Kansas City was eligible for the COPS program we were able to hire 100 police officers. In other words, this is five times the number of officers we were ever able to hire in a single year before. As is always the case, a downturn in the economy requires cities to cut their budgets just as those same economic troubles lead to an increase in crime. This week’s award, and the cadet class that can be saved because of it, will go a long way toward making our streets safer.

The Recovery Act grants, will be administered by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) through the federal agency’s COPS Hiring Recovery Program. These funds will provide much needed financial support to state, local and tribal governments, and will help the nation’s law enforcement agencies add and retain the workforce needed to fight crime more effectively through community policing. The Department of Justice received over 7,200 applications for more than 39,000 officer positions, representing a total of $8.3 billion in requested funding

Praise for Lee’s Summit’s first House Page

This summer, I was very proud to nominate and sponsor the first House Page from Lee’s Summit Missouri, Ms. Abigail Allen. Her selection is full of firsts in that she is also my very first nominee to have served as a Page since my election to Congress.

In early July, Ms. Allen donned the navy blazer of the House Pages and joined the ranks of a very special group of students. Pages run errands, deliver flags, transport messages, raise and lower our flag over the Capitol to begin and end our daily business and every four years, they are entrusted with transporting the Electoral College ballots from the Senate to the House Chamber to tally the votes for our President. These juniors in high school get a firsthand look at the inner workings of Congress.

The Page Program is invaluable to our nation. Without the House Pages, the Capitol simply would not function. The nearly 100 high school students, who serve as pages for both the House and Senate, are an integral part of a system that keeps Congress running. Originally, Pages filled ink boxes and sand shakers for Members. They stocked the Chamber lamps with oil and kept candles on Member’s desks lit for night sessions. They started fires and filled the wood boxes to keep the offices warm.

Today, while their errands have changed, their importance has only increased. These young, bright Americans, like Ms. Allen, are part of an illustrious, rarified group, many of whom have gone on to become Congressmen, Senators, Governors, Cabinet Secretaries and captains of industry. As we see the Pages moving quickly through the complex in their navy blazers, we all wonder which of these young scholars will go on to be the next Congressman John Dingell, Bill Gates, Bill Owen or even Tiger Woods — all of whom served as Pages.

Tomorrow, Ms. Allen will return home to prepare for her senior year at Blue Springs South High School. She will be able to share with her classmates an in-depth knowledge of Congress few others have been able to acquire.

Ms. Allen is a member of her school’s cross country team, track and field team, Young Democrats and most importantly a member of the National Honor Society. She is also a member of the St. James United Methodist Church Youth Group in Kansas City, Missouri.

It has been my pleasure to have Ms. Allen as a House Page. I can say with zero hesitation that she has represented the Fifth District and her hometown well.

Relgious Freedom Luncheon

Pictured left to right: Ambassador of Iraq, Samir Sumaida'ie; Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, II; Ambassador of Sudan, Akec Khoc; Ambassador of Bahrain, Ms. Houda Ezra Ebrahim Nonoo; Ambassador of Uzbekistan, Abdulaziz Kamilov

Yesterday afternoon, I was very glad to Co-Chair the International Religious Freedom Caucus’s Luncheon in the Library of Congress. In the midst of a hectic week, Representative Trent Franks (AZ-02) and I were honored to have a very well attended luncheon. The lunch included many Ambassadors from nations around the world, Members of Congress, and staff who joined us to bring attention to, and to promote, the essential need for religious tolerance not only in the United States, but throughout the world.

The foundation of our democratic nation rests on the establishment of the freedom to practice one’s religion, express one’s beliefs, or abstain from involvement in religion if one so chooses. It is telling that the very first amendment drafted by our founders addressed religious freedom, emphasizing the fact that religious freedom is indeed a fundamental right. I think the worldwide interest in our work, represented by the crowd of foreign dignitaries who gathered for this luncheon, shows the eager and earnest way the world is looking to us to advocate for those rights around the globe.